Edmonton area has also gotten a big dump of snow right after a few days of +2 - +7 to melt what ice we had starting to form!! and now with a foot or more snow falling in the passed 3-4 days (im just guestimating from the patio table in backyard) its gunna be insulating the ice real good
like you said everyone must be careful, ecspecially anyone in experienced with ice / these sort of conditions... only possible plus side is the snow might keep some people off the ice with their cars early on
As for google maps - It is amazing for finding either access to a new lake or new access to your old favorite.. along with being able to see SOME structure, ecspecially close to shore drop offs or shelfs....
I dont know if anyone else uses this site ..... But i find it amazing for heading to new lakes ***edit it is kind of old (1990) so some things might have changed but I havent run into any problems with it yet***
http://sunsite.ualberta.ca/Projects/Alberta-Lakes/
it is pretty awsome has descriptions / characteristics of lakes/ fish species/ history of area(and lake inluding water levels/ sometimes mercury or fertilizer ontaminant lists too) / campgrounds / access points / directions/ activities ( walking trails and other stuff)
So you can find directions to get there, directions to the access points or campgrounds.... and most importantly!!!! it also has DEPTH CHARTS!!!
So you can do 'your homework' before you hit the lake and have an idea where you want to start.. get to the lake with a game plan!!
Usually if you pick your lake, and then select the Lake basin characteristics from the menu it will have a link 'fig x.x' that will be your depth chart of the lake. it will be used in a sentence... for example (from the site) ;
3. Lake Basin Characteristics
Coal Lake is 18-km long, but only 0.7-km wide at its widest point. The lake has a steeply sloping bottom (Fig. 2). The substrate is primarily firm sand and clay to a water depth of 2.0 m; in water deeper than 2 m, the substrate is soft flocculent mud (Integrated Envir. Sci. Inc. 1984).